PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Case Study 1: Watford

In one of the strongest allegations we have heard, we were approached by a leaseholder who felt their managing agent was not doing a very good job for the money charged, and were not accounting to them properly. This generated suspicions that money was being syphoned off.

Initially, the leaseholder asked us to investigate the possibility of supporting them and invoking their right to manage. However, on investigation, we were able to advise our new client that under the terms of the lease each leaseholder was a member of and had the right to participate in a building management company which was already in place. By some quirk the directors of the managing agent were also the directors of this leaseholders’ management company, and this was the first matter we sought to resolve. We opened up lines of communication and started a useful and impartial dialogue, thereby removing the difficulties which can often arise in situations of heightened suspicion.

The approach bore fruit and after 2 months we had an agreement from the incumbent directors to resign and 2 leaseholders were appointed in their stead. When one of these in turn stepped down, we were invited to fill the breach.

Of course it would have been a simple if knee jerk reaction to immediately sack the managing agent. However, we reasoned with our fellow director that we should use them to help resolve the dire arrears problem which existed. Within 3 months these arrears were largely resolved and we were able to move forward. We were also able to show that that concerns about missing funds, were very wide of the mark and that the agent had been acting entirely properly.